Barry Morphew has been returned to Colorado to face trial for the murder of his wife, Suzanne Morphew, in 2020.
Morphew is being held in Alamosa County and has a hearing scheduled on Wednesday, KKTV reported.
Morphew, who was residing in Arizona at the time, was apprehended on June 20 after a grand jury issued an indictment in the Colorado case, as previously reported by CrimeOnline.
He faced murder charges back in 2021, but a judge in Fremont County dismissed the case without prejudice, allowing prosecutors the option to refile charges in the future.
They did so earlier this month, and a grand jury returned a true bill for first degree murder.
Suzanne Morphew vanished on Mother’s Day in 2020 following her husband’s report that she didn’t return from a cycling excursion. Her bike was eventually found at the bottom of a steep ravine on Chaffee County Road 225. According to investigators, the bicycle was intact and showed no evidence of blood. After she was reported missing, Barry Morphew suggested that his wife might have been kidnapped.
Friends, however, told investigators that the Morphews had been arguing and that Suzanne Morphew may have had a boyfriend out of state.
Her remains were found in September 2023, scattered in a remote area in Saguache County. Reports indicated that she may have been buried in a shallow grave. Officials said dental records were used to identify the bones as Suzanne Morphew.
Last year, El Paso County coroners said testing of Suzanne Morphew’s femoral trabecular bone determined died of “undetermined means in the setting of butorphanol, azaperone, and medetomidine intoxication” — drugs that are marketed as a compounded, injectable chemical immobilizer for wildlife providing pharmacologically reversible analgesia, sedation, and immobilization.”
